Friday, February 26, 2010

A Week Late and a Zebra Short

OK peoples, I'm really sorry I've been slacking with my blog already, but really, slacking is the story of my life, so don't be so surprised. I am mad at myself though cause I actually had something really interesting to write about last week too! Oh well, here it goes now.......

So a week ago I was driving to my Thursday night workshop trying to get on I-75, but I noticed that the ramp to get on was more backed up than usual. Then about 2 police cars zoomed past me to get on the interstate, so I started thinking that there must be an accident. While this thought popped into my head, I also started to notice the helicopter noise. I look up, and there must have been at least 3 helicopters flying overhead. OK, I thought, they must be chasing a suspect (not to uncommon in the part of town I was in). Boy, were they ever chasing a suspect!

Turns out, the suspect was a runaway zebra from the circus who happened to run by my car as I was sitting there on the interstate. Now, there are a lot of wild things running the streets of Atlanta, but a zebra on the interstate? I definitely had to do a double take. This is not something you see every day.

After the zebra ran by, I saw a few officers on motorcycles and men on foot chasing this poor animal. He finally got caught around the MLK exit near Grady Hospital, after the police managed to box him in with their cars. It was such a crazy site! This is not something that happens in real life. This is something that happens in the movies, or in New York.

The funny part was how fast twitter is on it. I called my co-worker to tell her the craziness I just saw, and before I could even say anything, she answered the phone, "Did you see a zebra?". I was like, WTF? Me: "Yes, how did you know that?" Her:"It's on twitter".

So after I told everyone my crazy story of seeing a zebra running loose, I did some research and confirmed that he did indeed escape from the circus, which I assumed since I had just been to the circus that past weekend. It's funny though because apparently that zebra has quite the downtown Atlanta escapade before he made it to the part where I saw him.

I'm glad I was in the right place at the right time, cause that was definitely the highlight of my day. I am also the type of person who pays no attention to the news and what is going on in the world, so I probably wouldn't have got the memo about the escaped zebra till a few days later. It was nice to actually be on the frontlines of a breaking news story.

I searched again for an article about the zebra to link to this blog, so please check it out. It's the follow-up article about what happened with him. Apparently his name is Lima and he is recovering at the University of Georgia's vet school. Poor Lima. He had his taste of freedom, but only for a little while. I could't help cheering for that zebra as he ran by. After all, don't we all want a little taste of freedom too?

Afterthought:

Before you ask, no, I wasn't able to get a picture of Lima. By the time I drove by him again, I had to drive and take the picture at the same time, and my camera phone is too crappy for that kind of live action photography. Sorry peeps, you're just going to have to believe me!